


Princess Ahmanet Does Starbucks

by zinc_chameleon



Category: Universal Monsters Universe
Genre: Egyptian mysticism, membrane theory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 03:01:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11175627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinc_chameleon/pseuds/zinc_chameleon
Summary: A short scene in which Dr. Henry Jekyll introduces the theoretical physicist Lisa Randall to a resurrected Princess Ahmanet at the Starbucks in 93 Greenwich Ave, Greenwich Village, New York.  Ahmanet attempts to explain trans-dimensionality of being to Dr. Randall, who doesn't believe it until she watches Ahmanet cure a baby girl of scoliosis. Ahmanet offers to de-age Lisa by 30 years, but Lisa declines, convincing Ahmanet of Lisa's purity of heart.





	Princess Ahmanet Does Starbucks

**Author's Note:**

> It is highly likely that the Denisovans, whose existence was only confirmed in 2013, (and yet we know more about them than any other extinct branch of humans, due to modern genetics) are the actual Yeti. The gene that codes for improved oxygen metabolism has been identified in the Denisovan DNA.

**Princess Ahmanet Does Starbucks**

Dr. Henry Jekyll was polite but firm in his admonitions to Dr. Lisa Randall, the esteemed theoretical physicist.

"Now be careful how you speak to Princess Ahmanet."

"Why" Lisa raised her right eyebrow. "Is she some sort of serial killer, as social media claims?"

"She was," Henry replied. "But she's decided to take a new tack, with the emphasis on new. It's best not to get her angry at the this transition in her existence."

"Why do you use nineteenth century Theosophical terms all the time? Can't you just say 'life'? Lisa asked, as she walked through the front entrance of Starbucks on 93rd Avenue in Greenwich Village, New York. 

"Because those rather non-technical terms are the closest language I have for her state of being," Dr. Henry Jekyll replied, holding the door for two teenage girls who pushed past the academic twosome, completely enrapt in the smartphone conversations with friends somewhere on planet Earth.

"And here she is," Henry proclaimed. "Dr. Lisa Randall, I'd like you to meet Princess Ahmanet, Pharoah of the Third Dynasty of Egypt."

Dr. Lisa Randall had been expecting someone dark and exotic, but instead she saw a young woman of Nilotic extraction dressed in a sleeveless shirt and shorts of quality Egyptian seersucker. Lisa would have taken her for some wealthy undergrad from the Middle East, whose bronze skin had a faint bluish tinge to it, some sort of cerulean hue that made Ahmanet appear to blend into thin air. Lisa's eyes crossed for a moment as she adjusted her gaze to this seemingly ordinary-looking person. 

Ahmanet stood up and offered Lisa a slender, athletic hand. "Don't pay him any attention," she said smiling at the physicist. "He likes to brag about me a lot. I'm his biggest catch, so far."

Lisa took the proffered hand in hers. It was strong and cool, but nothing that felt supernatural. "I suppose Henry's been bragging about me, too," she said, smiling in spite of herself. "I'm his biggest catch, academically, so to speak." 

"Please sit down," Ahmanet offered. "You two look like you've been on your feet for hours. I've already ordered coffee and pastries. A carafe of Italian espresso for me, a tall caramel macchiatto for Lisa, and a dark roast skim milk latte for Henry, who has decided to start watching his weight."

Lisa looked at Henry askance. "How much else did you tell her about me?"

"Only what I got from the Internet," Ahmanet said, stroking Lisa's hand lightly. "And Henry made a promise to change his ways, once I decided to change mine. No more gravy-covered Yorkshire puddings, downed with Black-and-Tans, eh Henry?"

Lisa decided to ignore that banter between the two members of the Prodigium. "I want to know exactly why we are having this meeting, and why here." 

One of the workers had come from behind the counter to deliver coffees and biscuits to the trio. He was a tall, thin man in his early twenties, with a small 'soul goatee' and a piercing in his left earlobe. " Forgive me for saying this, but aren't you Dr. Lisa Randall? I remember you from that BBC special on Parallel Universes. I thought you were the coolest physicist ever," he gushed. 

"I guess I'll never live that one down," Lisa smiled. "Do you want an autograph?"

"Could we do a selfie instead? My friends won't believe I met you unless we do."

Lisa was about to introduce Ahmanet and Henry when she noticed the Princess starting intently into the eyes of the young man. After a moment she nodded her approval to Lisa, who suddenly remembered that she was sitting beside two suspected criminals. Ahmanet merely nodded to Lisa to go ahead. The young man put his Galaxy S8 up to his and Lisa's face and snapped a shot. He then stood back, and turned the smart phone around for Lisa to examine.

"Does it meet your approval, Dr. Randall?" the young man asked nervously.

"Yes." Lisa's scientific mind ramped into overdrive. The young man's statement as well as his body language indicated that he was not aware of either Ahmanet or Henry. Even odder was the statement and now the fact that Ahmanet had ordered coffee and pastries without attracting undue notice. Lisa immediately assumed a previously Photo-Shopped image, and collusion between the Starbucks employee, a supposed Dr. Henry Jekyll, and a supposed long-dead Egyptian princess.

The picture shocked Lisa beyond words, but she had steeled herself for this meeting. She was expecting some high-technology sleight-of-hand, but what she saw was the work of a master. There was only the young man's earnest face and hers; Ahmanet and Henry were nowhere to be seen, although they were less than an arms-length away. Lisa studied the photo intently, noting that ambient light was entirely accurate. She decided to hold her opinions for the moment.

At last the young man went back to his work behind the counter, but not before he offered a friendly comment. "Are you really going to drink all that coffee and eat all those pastries by yourself, Dr. Randall?"

"Yes," Lisa said quickly. "I'm just coming off a cleansing fast." She turned to Ahmanet and Henry. "Okay, you've had your fun. Neither of you can be who you claim you are. You're both using pseudonyms, but why? What can I possibly do for you? "

Henry answered. "I-actually we--need you to create the theory, the mathematical nexus that can link your parallel universes of interconnected membranes to Ahmanet's trandimensional reality. Each of you has half of the greatest puzzle ever placed before humankind, and we desperately need the solution."

"That's a very impressive speech, Henry," Lisa said accenting this gentleman's supposed name. "But I'm enough of a scientist to demand visible, tangible proof. Although, I'm pretty sure you two haven't released some sort of weaponized psychedelic drug into Starbucks."

Ahmanet smiled widely. "Henry, I think it's time to call in Maria and her baby." She motioned to Henry's breast pocket. Henry nodded his head. 

"And proof you shall have, along with an offer you can't possibly have imagined coming your way," Henry said with a small smile.

Henry withdrew a pearlescent iPhone 7 from an inner jacket pocket, and quickly pressed the touch screen three times, the face of the iPhone away from Lisa, so that she couldn't see the transaction. A ringtone modelled after Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" sounded outside the Starbucks' main window, and soon a young Hispanic mother entered wheeling in a baby carriage. Lisa noted how tired the woman looked, with large dark blue circles under her eyes. Immediately the physicist felt compassion for the new mother, in spite of the small voice in the back of her head telling her that this was also part of the set-up.

"Good day, Senor Jekyll, and good to day you, Senora Ahmanet," Maria said with a strong Sonoran Mexican accent. This instantly shifted Lisa's mind into a higher state of analysis. Maria was clearly a confederate, an accomplice to whatever shenanigans these two actors were attempting. "So, you will keep your promise to me here, in this public place?"

"Yes. This is very important to me," Ahmanet said, looking at Lisa first, then Henry, and finally back at Maria. "It is the proof that I am on a new road," she added. "Please bring little Anna to me". 

Maria reached into the baby carriage, and gently brought up a sleeping infant girl, dressed in pink pajamas. Ahmanet held out her arms, and Maria confidently but with great care passed the baby to Ahmanet. In spite of her misgivings, Lisa leaned over the table to have a closer look at the little one. Anna was a black-haired, brown-eyed, coffee-complexioned little girl no more than two months old. Ahmanet looked Lisa in the eye, and turned Maria around so that the baby's back faced the physicist. The pajamas were the type that had bows in the back. While holding the infant close to her breast with her right arm, Ahmanet deftly untied the strings with her left hand, allowing the little girl's naked back to be seen by Lisa. The infant whimpered at what should have been a painless action. Then Lisa understood why Maria and her daughter had come to this meeting. If this was all a connivance for media attention on the part of the supposed Henry Jekyll, then Lisa held the blackest emotions in her heart for him.

"You bastard," Lisa hissed to Henry. "She has got scoliosis of the spine, and it's probably going to cripple her for life. If you are trying to tug at my heartstrings, you've seriously underestimated me. I'm ready to call the police, right now."

Lisa expected Ahmanet to react with fury; instead Henry began to breath heavily through his nose, nostrils flaring and brows furrowing. A beast prowled behind his eyes.

"I told you to be careful about what you say, and how you say it. My patience is not infinite."

Surprisingly it was Ahmanet who defused the moment. "Henry, would you please take a sip of your latte? Little Anna needs our help."

Lisa did not budge nor avert her gaze; after all she was a major fitness enthusiast, and had no fear about evading these two crazy people. What kept her in her chair was the infant's terrible problem, and the desperate, earnest look on Maria's face.

Finally, Henry let the moment go. "Yes, very well. We've got important work to do, after all." He sipped his latte lightly before carefully handing the steaming drink to the Princess.

"Careful not to disturb the foam. I just need your signature, not your slurps," Ahmanet said, grinning.

"Signature?" asked Lisa, simultaneously furious and mystified in equal amounts. She was regaining her famous composure, as usual. 

"My DNA," Henry Jekyll replied. He took another delicate sip from his latte, then handed the cup to Ahmanet, making sure that the liquid and foam remained unmixed.

Ahmanet began singing a plaintive and ancient Egyptian melody to the baby. The little one quieted down for a moment, then began to squirm again. Ahmanet took the cup in her left hand, placed it on the table, removing a tiny dap of foam with her left pinky finger. She painted two strips of foam--one on each side of the baby's twisted spine--and then began singing again. The foam swirled, forming glowing blue hieratics, the precursors to heiroglyphics. Lisa watched in incomprehension as the baby's spine straightened itself out. The tiny creature gurgled a sigh of pure joy.

Ahmanet looked at Lisa for a moment, then tenderly handed the baby to Lisa. "Careful with her head and neck. She's not as strong as most babies are at her age." 

Lisa took the now smiling infant to her bosom, carefully cradling Anna's head and neck in her athletic right hand.

"Feel for Anna's spine for yourself. Does she still have--Ahmanet searched for the word--'scoliosis'?"

"No. She does not." Lisa admitted.

"Then smell her. Do you think I can fake a baby's smell?" Ahmanet asked.

"No. Olfactory illusions are the most difficult, because that's the most primitive part of the brain." Lisa held the baby closer inhaling the sweet smell of a newborn. She then wrinkled her nose, smiling. "She's real baby all right. She just filled her diapers. Time to give her back to her mother."

"Maria, Anna is cured now. You may have your child again, whole and happy" Henry Jekyll said, bringing the conversation to a close. A visibly shaken Maria, sobbing for joy, picked up her baby, placing it gently back into the carriage. Henry waved his hand in goodbye the Mexican woman, who quickly wove through the incoming Starbucks crowd, who parted on each side of her. With a quick glance back at their table, she was gone.

Ahmanet reached across the small table, taking Lisa's hands in hers. "I think you deserve an explanation. I'm not a scientist like you--not very technical--but it is you and I who must learn to communicate. Henry is just here to help."

"Then explain to me what just happened. Start with why Maria looked so tired," Lisa insisted. Ahmanet looked at Henry with a smile and raised eyebrows, as if to indicate how impressed she was with Lisa.

"It was not just that the baby kept her up at night," Ahmanet began. "I needed Maria's 'ba' energy to cure Anna. I can hold this energy in my womb, but I cannot create it myself. My powers are much diminished, although my knowledge is greatly increased."

"Hold that last thought for a moment," Lisa said. "You say you've got a womb? I thought you were some sort of supernatural creature."

"Sorry," Ahmanet apologized. "Like I said, I'm not very technical, not yet. I mean the place in my energy structure where a woman's womb would be."

"Actually," Henry Jekyll interrupted, "What you have just witnessed was a demonstration of my power, channeled through Amanet."

Ahmanet turned to Henry and lowered her head, a bull getting ready to charge. "Let me do the explaining this time, Henry."

"I apologize for the interruption, Dr. Randall," Henry said. "It's not often I get to discuss such matters with a peer."

"Oh, I'm a peer now, am I?" Lisa chuckled, fascinated in spite of herself. "Okay, then don't interrupt again," she lightly scolded Jekyll.

"But, Henry is correct. I can contain his power within my womb. However, you need to know that Henry is not really Henry. How can he be? Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that novel about him, but Henry's real story is much more interesting, and much, much more important. You can interrupt now, if you like, Dr. Henry Jekyll."

Dr. Henry Jekyll, creation of Robert Louis Stevenson, cleared his throat and began. "The first thing you need to know is that I was born in 1888, studied at Oxford. I accompanied Dr. Evans-Wentz to Tibet, we met a false Lama and a real Yeti."

"Go on," Lisa encouraged.

"One very cold night when we were in Lhasa I ventured out onto the balcony to get a view of the full moon. To my surprise a Yeti materialized a few yards away from me."

"Materialized? Did you actually observe the process, or was this after the fact?" Lisa queried.

"She's good," Ahmanet commented, glancing over at Henry Jekyll, who nodded his head in agreement.

"Yes to the first. The Yeti appeared to 'swim' into view, much like adjusting a microscope or a telescope."

"If that is what happened, that is important. It tells me something about the scale of the energetic transaction. Sorry, I'm getting technical. Finish your exposition."

"There's not much more to tell. Two more Yeti appeared, triangulating me. They placed their right first fingers on my forehead--light as a feather--and their left hands over the center of their hearts. A powerful blue glow ran down their right arms, and into my heart. After that I was changed. No revelations from them, not even a conversation. One touch, and they were gone."

"And? What then?" Lisa asked, nonplussed. 

"After that, I could move between the hierarchy of dimensions, but not in parallel universes. Every time I moved, I noticed that I aged backwards, as if this movement sloughed off dead and dying parts of me. It's quite unpleasant by the way. The smell is annoying, and the dead tissue stains one's clothes. But that's the least of it. Every time I moved Mr. Hyde emerged until I could gather my wits. So as godlike powers go, it's equally burden and curse, and not much of a blessing."

"As crazy as all this sounds," Lisa stopped, sipping her now-cooling caramel macchiato, "it is starting to make sense. Henry, you moved Anna through a higher dimension, and in the process Ahmanet altered the baby's DNA, healing her."

"Yes!" Ahmanet cried. "You get it, Lisa. I talked to Anna's cells, once I had stroked her back."

"Could you do this for large numbers of people?" Lisa asked pointedly. Ahmanet and Henry looked at each other sheepishly in response.

"Highly unlikely. The whole process is very delicate and requires a great deal of 'ba' energy and mental concentration. The worst problem, however, is that Mr. Hyde will likely appear the more time the process takes. And that is a very bad thing."

"I think you're onto something beyond amazing, but what can I possibly do to help? I'm a physicist, not a magician. I suppose you could ask Steven Strange," Lisa quipped.

"Who's that?" Ahmanet asked.

"A mythical, imaginary character in popular literature," Henry answered. "He won't be able to help." Henry placed his hands together in a steeple shape. "The true problem is the Denisovans. They are the Yeti, and at present, they are being cloned in many secret research facilities."

"And why is that the true problem?" Lisa asked.

"Because the ability to travel between dimensions is not learned. It is genetic, and it will emerge in the cloned Yeti children. Who knows what kind of evil purposes they will be used for?"

"It's actually worse than that," Ahmanet added, picking up a bear's claw cookie and delicately munching on the sugar coating. "Set is returning with an army to enslave this world."

"Do you mean the biblical Satan? Guys, don't let me down now," Lisa complained. "You've just about got me convinced, and then you throw in old-time religion, which I definitely don't buy."

"Fair enough," Henry Jekyll agreed. "It is more accurate to think of Set as a malignant trans-dimensional entity, with a hidden agenda. I trust Ahmanet's opinion on the dangers of his return to Earth, just as the Yeti children are about to be born. He could use them as unbeatable agents of death."

"Do either of you realize how much you are asking of me? I mean, beyond the fact that you ask me to believe you at all?" Lisa demanded. "You want me to work out the math that connects parallel universes to your dimensional hierarchies so that you can build defensive technologies to save the world. If I had known the conversation was going in this direction, I would have worn a cape!"

"What does a cape have to do with this?" Ahmanet asked. "Please, Lisa, this is of the utmost seriousness."

"It's an old American euphemism," Henry explained. "All their greatest heroes wear capes when they spring into action. What we need from you, Lisa, is the best theoretical work you have ever produced, along with engineering solutions to implement it." 

"And just what do you offer in return?" Lisa asked. "I'm assuming a substantial raise in pay, along with tenure, and a great pension. I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I"m fifty-four years old, and I've got to consider my future in practical terms."

"Ahmanet and I can de-age you by thirty years, in slightly more time than it took to heal Anna." Henry Jekyll replied. "You have only to agree."

"Thanks but no thanks," Lisa said forcefully. "It sounds like a temptation, something with terrible strings attached." To Lisa's surprise, Ahmanet clapped her hands in joy. "You were right, Henry. She is the one!"

"Congratulations, Lisa, you've passed our most important test. You are willing to undertake the task without the seductive promises that I assure you we can deliver on." Henry said. "I believe our meeting is at an end. We will contact you shortly." Henry stood up, motioning Ahmanet to do the same. "Let's go, Princess. I want to be there when Maria has regained her strength. She works for us, you know, Lisa," Henry added.

Lisa stood up, a bit wobbly after the improbable scene she had witnessed and the next-to-unbelievable conversations she had taken part in. To her surprise, Ahmanet came up to her quickly, and kissed her full on the lips. "My gift to you," she whispered.

A hot flash passed through Lisa, followed by a feeling of endless grey drudgery. Could she have been poisoned? 

Henry opened the door to let Ahmanet through. As he stood in the doorway, he turned to Lisa. "I would call in sick for the rest of the week if I were you. You are going to lose ten years every day for the next three days. Let's see: this is Tuesday, so you can expect to be twenty-four years old on Friday morning. I would say the experience will be wonderful, but not if you have extensive dental work. You're going to grow a complete new set of perfect teeth in those three days, and I'm afraid it's quite painful. Best of luck to you."


End file.
